QoS-Oriented Handoff Algorithm in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN

Currently, IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN) is rising as the most popular means for the broadband wireless access network. In this thesis, we propose a QoS(Quality of Service)-Oriented mechanism using handshaking method of scanning phase in IEEE 802.11 handoff. In conventional process for handoff, the major criterion to select the best AP(Access Point) among candidates is normally based on the RSS(Received Signal Strength), which does not always make the selected network guarantee the maximum achievable performance. Even though the link quality with a neighboring AP is excellent, the AP may not be a good candidate to handoff to simply because MAC(Medium Access Control) protocol of IEEE 802.11 standard is contention-based such as CSMA/CA. Therefore, if we apply network level information to AP selection criteria, we can achieve better handoff efficiency rather than before. The analysis and simulation results applied to our new mechanism show clearly better performance than AP selection based on traditional handoff method.